Good morning. I have a dryer here where the heating element was out. I fixed the element and it heats now. But when I got into the machine, I found it full of lint — not in the lint trap, not in the exhaust duct, but inside the cabinet. Lint packed around the element housing, around the motor, sitting on every surface inside. That doesn’t happen on a dryer that’s working right, and I want to show you what causes it because I see this missed all the time.
If your dryer has had a heating element fail — or two or three elements fail over the years — check the drum seal. If nobody has checked it, that is almost certainly your problem. The drum seal is a felt strip that runs around the front and rear edges of the drum. Its job is to keep air moving through the drum and out the exhaust. When that seal breaks down, air and the lint that’s supposed to go with it bypass the filter and end up inside the cabinet instead.
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Why a Bad Drum Seal Kills Dryer Heating Elements
The dryer is designed so that heated air enters the drum from the back, tumbles through the load, picks up moisture and lint, and exhausts through the lint filter and out the duct. The drum seal keeps that airflow contained inside the drum. When the seal shreds, air takes the path of least resistance — straight through the gap around the drum edge into the cabinet, bypassing the element coils entirely. This is air that should be flowing over the coils of the element and picking up heat as well as keeping the energized coils at a fixed temperature. This gap also allows heated air and lint to accumulate inside the cabinet.
It settles on the heating element, on the thermostat, on the motor. Lint around a heating element is a fire hazard and an overheating problem. The high-limit thermostat is supposed to trip before things get dangerous. But persistent lint buildup keeps cycling the thermostat, and eventually the thermal fuse blows. If you replace the element and fuse without fixing the seal, the new element burns out inside of a year. I’ve seen machines that have had three elements put in by different techs with nobody ever touching the drum seal.
How to Check the Drum Seal
To get into a Whirlpool-style dryer, pull the lint filter out. Remove the two screws under the filter slot — one on each side. Push in on the two clips along the top edge of the front panel with a putty knife. The front panel lifts off. Disconnect the door switch wiring harness and remove two screws along the top corners of the inside cabinet. Lift the panel off its bottom clips and set the panel aside.
You’ll see the drum sitting in the cabinet with a felt strip running around the front edge of the panel you just removed and along the rear of the drum itself where it meets the rear bulkhead. Look at that seal closely. From the outside it may appear intact. Check underneath it, where it contacts the bulkhead. On the machine in this video, the seal looked fine at first glance — but when I lifted it, it was shredded in a section along the bottom. That gap was where all the lint was getting into the cabinet. If you see any cracking, shredding, separation, or sections where the felt has compressed flat and is no longer making contact, replace the seal.
What You Need
For Whirlpool, Kenmore, Amana, Crosley, and Maytag dryers, the rear drum felt seal is part W10612022. The front seal is typically included in a complete drum seal kit. Replace both front and rear if the machine has any age on it — if one is bad, the other isn’t far behind:
- W10612022 Dryer Rear Drum Felt Seal (Whirlpool/Amana/Kenmore) — Buy on Amazon
- 279838 Heating Element with Thermal Fuse and Thermostat Kit — Buy on Amazon
- BlueStars 341241 Dryer Drum Belt — Buy on Amazon
- Klein Tools MM300 Digital Multimeter — Buy on Amazon
Clear the Lint Before You Close It Up
After you’ve replaced the seal and the element, blow out the entire inside of the cabinet before you put it back together. Every bit of lint that accumulated from the bad seal is sitting in there, and a shop vac or compressed air will get it out. If you skip this step, you’ve replaced the parts but you haven’t fixed the fire hazard. Then check the exhaust duct all the way to the outside vent. A plugged duct is often what caused the original thermal fuse failure — if the exhaust can’t move, heat backs up into the cabinet. Clear it every year minimum.
Before you spend money on a service call, check my repair guides on Gumroad. Step-by-step diagnostic manuals for the most common washer and dryer problems. harperknowles.gumroad.com
Rather have a pro do it? If you’re anywhere in central Louisiana — Oakdale, Oberlin, Elizabeth, Pitkin, Pine Prairie, and Glenmora — Harper & Knowles handles this all the time. Call (337) 831-6757 or visit harperandknowles.com to schedule a service call.
About the Author: Chip Knowles owns Harper & Knowles Washing Machine and Dryer Repair LLC in Oakdale, Louisiana. He took over the shop in 2019 from his late friend and mentor Donald Harper Sr. New video every Sunday at 2 PM Central on YouTube.